Ruby in the Rough
by Azdoine
Summary: Reuben Rose was always a sad boy. Ruby Rose, on the other hand, is much happier - and Yang knows it. Featuring transgender!Ruby.
1. Retrospection

_That bastard!_ Yang seethed silently, before letting her rage bubble over into a scream of anger. She fell into the full swing of her Semblance, dashing at Junior and allowing her power to glow so brightly that the world nearly went white.

 _He pulled my hair out!_

Her fist impacted against his jaw with a dull _crunch_ , breaking something despite his Aura, and throwing him bodily out of the window of his club. Yang followed suit.

This had been meant to be a simple information-gathering 'mission', and yet it had developed into an all-out and horrific brawl. Which was fairly typical, all things considered, but still _so annoying._

Together, she and Junior tumbled out of the club, hitting the pavement harshly. Yang rose to her feet, staring down at the recalcitrant man.

"Y-Yang?"

Yang flicked her vision upwards, to where a girl in red and black, with deep red hair and silver eyes was standing and gazing at Yang with an expression of sheer, utter, _terror_.

 _Oh_.

* * *

In retrospect, perhaps Yang should have expected something like this sooner. She could practically trace Reuben Rose's path through life to where they were today.

Backstep. Look back to the day when Reuben was just a little brat, five or six, sitting on Summer Rose's knee.

"Hey mom?" He asked hesitantly, poking his fingers together as if he was ashamed of the words in his mouth. "Why did you name me 'Reuben', anyways?"

Summer shrugged, confused but willing to follow Reuben's somber mood. "It's just an old name from mythology. The name of a famous man. Why do you ask, sweetie?"

Reuben buried his face in her stomach, so he wouldn't have to meet her inquisitive gaze.

"I don't know." He whispered. "I don't know if I like it and I don't know why I don't like it."

Summer's brow furrowed up with brief consternation. "Well, it's just a name. It's not an important part of you, it's just a thing that other people call you by."

He thought on the matter for several minutes, before he gave voice to the question bubbling up in his mind.

"Were there any other names you wanted to give me, Mom?"

Summer smiled.

"Well, we planned to call you 'Ruby' if you were a girl, but I bet you would like that name even less than 'Reuben', heh."

Reuben flushed just as red as the roots of his hair, although Summer didn't see it.

"It doesn't sound that bad…" He whispered, assuming he would be too quiet for Summer to hear. Summer did a complete double-take, looking up to stare at Yang, who was sitting on the other side of the room.

Yang shrugged, looking away from Summer and turning to the book she was reading.

Summer managed to find her voice after a few moments, gently cupping Reuben's face and lifting it to face her.

"Do you like that name more than the one you have now?"

He tore himself away, looking down in shame.

"It's okay." Summer said.

She really didn't _get it_ , but she hardly wanted Reuben - or Ruby, as the case might be - to go and be ashamed, did she?

That was not allowed, no sirree.

"I don't care what your name is or who you are, you're always going to be my baby." Summer whispered, wiping away one of the tears from the corner of Ruby's eye and drawing him into a crushing hug.

And for a moment, all was right in the world.

* * *

Step forward. Look to the day when Qrow came home, bearing the news which changed Ruby's life forever.

"She's gone." Taiyang said, with a pathetic little hiccup which showed how much he'd been crying. But he put on a strong face for his children, as strong a face as he could manage.

Qrow patted Taiyang awkwardly on the shoulder, staring into Ruby's silvery eyes with a too-calculating expression. And then - after making his excuses - he departed with a flutter of black against the white and cloudy sky.

Ruby watched him go with dead eyes, staring into the sky for hours on end. Yang herself watched Ruby carefully.

"Ruby, it's getting late." She said, sitting next to Ruby on the porch. Ruby just shook his head.

"Don't call me that."

Yang looked at Ruby with concern.

"Call you what?"

"Don't call me _Ruby_ !" Ruby - or rather, _Reuben_ \- nearly screamed. "It's all so _wrong_ . That was what _Mom_ called me, and now she's gone!"

Yang took Reuben into her arms, letting his tears stain her shirt. Even Yang cried, setting her head on top of Reuben's as she waited for his tears to subside, even for just a few moments.

"You can still use that name." Yang whispered. "I think… I think she would have wanted that."

Reuben's voice broke like glass. "It just feels so _fake_."

Yang gripped Reuben tighter.

"It will be okay, Rubes." She said, putting faith in her ability to fake it until she could make it. Reuben stiffened momentarily before accepting the moniker.

Accepting the compromise.

* * *

Step forward. Look forward to the day when Reuben was in his teen years, coming home from Signal Academy along with Yang to regale Taiyang with tales of his days at the school, during Signal's winter break.

"And then, you know, Uncle Qrow told me that I could move up a grade, if I wanted. I think he was sort of proud of me… but it's hard to tell, cuz he has such high standards."

Taiyang snorted, sitting with Yang on the couch opposite from Reuben's chair.

"And… why, exactly, haven't I seen the paper trail for something like that?" He asked with a curious little grin.

"Cuz… I turned him down." Reuben said with a subdued tone, looking away from his sister and father.

"What? Come on, why would you do that?" Yang sputtered. "I thought you wanted to be, like, a super-Huntsman!"

"Well, yeah…" Reuben whispered. "I want to be a Huntress-"

"Huntsman." Taiyang absently corrected. Reuben's smile grew slightly strained.

"-but… I don't know. I'm fine with things as they are."

He shrugged. "I know I'll be a great Hunter some day. I don't… I don't need to rush into things."

Yang didn't miss Reuben's insistence on the gender-neutral language, quirking an eyebrow. He blushed under her searching gaze, before she turned away and looked at Taiyang.

"Well, Dad, I've got plenty of stories to tell you, too…"

* * *

Step forward. Look towards the day when Reuben had completed one of his years at Signal, and had come home again for summer break.

A loud _bang_ and a shattering noise rang out through the house, from Reuben's room. Yang was the first one on the scene, grabbing Reuben and lifting him off of his feet.

A mirror on the wall had been explosively shattered, casting fragments of broken glass across the floor of the room. Crescent Rose was still smoking in Reuben's hands, even as Yang looked Reuben over for injuries.

Taiyang entered split-seconds later, taking in the sight of the room and coming to his conclusions with ridiculous speed.

"Reuben Rose! What did you _do_!?"

Reuben cringed away and pried himself out of Yang's grip.

"Nothing, Dad."

"This doesn't look like nothing! What the hell were you thinking!?"

Reuben looked away sullenly, offering no rationale or explanation.

Yang saw the hurt in his eyes, the hurt so bad that he acted on instinct and actually shot out the mirror as opposed to face himself in it.

Impulsive _was_ always Reuben's shtick.

Taiyang continued to chew out Reuben for several minutes, before ordering Reuben to replace the mirror that he destroyed.

Even though Reuben did indeed get a summer job at a weapons shop - and get himself preemptively employed in another branch, during the school year - he never did replace that mirror.

Yang almost wondered _where_ all of Reuben's money was going, but she quickly learned the truth.

* * *

Look forward again, to when the summer vacation was almost over, and Yang heard a knock on the door.

"I'm coming!" She called out, dropping the video game she was playing and traipsing out to the front of the home, where a man was standing with a large and bulky package.

"Package for one Reuben Rose?"

Yang shook her head. "Sorry, he's not here. I'm his older sister, though, if you need someone to sign…?"

The man, a burly figure with brown hair and eyes shrugged.

"Fuck it, I just want to go home. Go ahead and sign for him."

It was certainly of questionable ethics, but Yang didn't really care that much. She signed _Reuben Rose_ in a sloppy scrawl which was all-too-similar to Reuben's own handwriting, and picked up the package, noting the return address with curiosity.

A pharmacy.

* * *

It was a few hours later when Reuben came home, walking in the door and instantly noting Yang's position next to his questionable contraband.

"Hey Rubes. We need to talk."

Reuben completely froze up.

"Yang?"

The girl in question pushed the package towards Reuben, staring at him sternly.

"Listen, I don't really care about whatever you're trying to take… just… please be honest, are you being safe? Are you going to hurt yourself?"

Reuben gulped, pushing his fringe of dark red hair back. Yang couldn't help but notice how _long_ it had gotten since he started growing it out, compared to his earlier short haircuts.

"I'm being as safe as I can be, Yang."

Yang looked into his eyes, searching for his honesty.

"Okay. Go ahead and get to… whatever you're doing. I won't tell Dad."

And then she left, leaving Reuben to his devices. She wouldn't figure out exactly what he was taking until one fateful and dark night.

* * *

Look forward one last time. This was the path Reuben Rose had taken, leading him to a face-to-face meeting with his sister outside of Junior's club.

"Y-Yang?"

Yang couldn't help but see straight through the red-and-black clothes to the scared kid underneath. If Reuben didn't look so horror-struck, then Yang might have congratulated her sweet little sibling for cleaning up so nicely.

But she didn't want to push him (her?) into opening up before they were ready.

So she did her best to put on an expression of confusion. "Sorry, do I know you?"

Reuben stared, gobsmacked, before finally squeaking out a reply in a feminine voice so alien in comparison to their normal masculine words. "I… I guess not."

Yang intentionally shrugged dramatically and turned away, making a beeline for Bumblebee.

She could grill them for information on what the hell they were doing... after all, that black corset looked tight enough to crack a rib, even through Aura. And what were they doing, sneaking out in the middle of the night?

But really, she just wanted Reuben to be safe and sound.

"Take care of yourself!" Yang called back to Reuben over her shoulder. "Stay safe, it's dangerous in this place at night!"

And then Yang hoisted herself onto her motorbike, and she was gone.

Yang could practically hear the flutter of rose petals as one mortified Ruby Rose flickered back home.


	2. Ruby Rose

Ruby tensed up as she heard Yang's motorcycle roll into the driveway, followed by the sound of the front door slamming open.

"I'm home!"

Yang tromped through the house, splattering mud and dirt everywhere with every step. Taiyang just gave Yang a _look_.

"What?"

He looked askance at Yang's dirtied shoes.

"Oh, fine." Yang groused sullenly, kicking her boots off into the corner. He sighed with deep resignation.

"How was your night out on the town?"

"It went fine." Yang said airily. "I met some cute girls-"

Both Ruby and Taiyang did simultaneous spit-takes.

"-but I beat two of them up and the other one was a little spacey."

Taiyang stared. "I, uh, didn't know you were looking for that sort of thing."

"Hey, I said I met cute girls. Not that I was looking for them." Yang snarked back, rummaging through the kitchen, before pulling a container of orange juice out of the fridge.

She chugged the entire thing down straight from the jug. Ruby gagged melodramatically from her place at the kitchen table.

"Yeah, yeah. Love you too, Rubes." Yang said, before ruffling Ruby's hair and making for the stairs to her bedroom.

 _She didn't call me Reuben_. Ruby realized distantly. _Does she know?_

She mulled it over for several seconds.

 _Nah. There's no way she recognized me._

That was what she wanted to believe, anyways.

And thus Ruby went back to her status quo, hiding her hormones in a box and hiding her changing body under baggy hoodies and sports bras, pretending that she was regular old Reuben Rose and that she was not a girl.

* * *

It was about six weeks later when Ruby realized just how wrong she was.

 _"Ruby Rose…"_ Ozpin had said. _"You have silver eyes. I don't suppose you're any relation to Reuben Rose? He has silver eyes too, you know."_

She waited in the police station, kicking her feet up and down as boredom overwhelmed her.

There had been no time to change out of her clothes, of course. Not that she even had boy-clothes to change into, which made the whole situation rather inconvenient.

She could hardly ask the policemen to let her go on her own, not when she'd just gotten involved in a Dust-shop robbery. Not when her father had already been called. So she waited for her dad to come and pick her up.

She almost considered using her Semblance to flee, but quashed the thought. She didn't want to get in _more_ trouble with law enforcement, no matter how appealing it seemed at the moment.

Finally, Yang walked in the front door, with Taiyang conspicuously absent.

"Hey, Rubes." She whispered quietly, before sitting down next to her on the bench. Ruby's heart skipped several beats, as she waited for the chewing-out she half-expected.

"What were you _thinking_ , going off and fighting robbers!? You could have gotten hurt, you dummy!"

It took several moments for the words to sink in, and for Ruby to realize that she was not, in fact, being berated for wearing a skirt. But being berated for worrying her sister.

"Yang, I-"

Yang grabbed her in a hug, nearly choking the life out of her. "Don't _ever_ do that again, you understand me? Me and Dad had a heart attack when we heard what you did."

Ruby practically melted into Yang's grip. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry..."

She wasn't just apologizing for fighting the crooks, but Yang didn't take it that way.

"You'd better be!" she hisses, before letting go and leaning back to survey Ruby from head to toe.

Ruby blushed under her sister's piercing gaze, and said nothing. Yang, thank God for small mercies, said nothing either.

"Dad's waiting outside. Do you want to break the news, or should I?"

"Uh… are you sure I can't just sneak out the back?"

Yang flicked her on the nose. "Quite sure. Come on, coming out with… all this... isn't going to be that bad."

Ruby almost opened her mouth to disagree. _Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm Dad's dear 'little man'..._

"If it's not so bad to talk about it…" She eventually whispered. "Then why did you never talk to me about that night when you saw me at the nightclub?"

Yang looked down.

"I _know_ that you figured me out… didn't you? Why didn't you talk to me about it?" She continued murmuring. "I felt _so worried_ , trying to figure out why you didn't say anything… I thought that maybe you were ashamed of me, too ashamed to talk about it…"

"That's not it!" Yang said suddenly. "I was never ashamed of you! I don't… I don't know what exactly is going on, not with everything you were hiding from me, but you're still my _family_. I still love you, and that's not going to change."

Ruby actually sniffed, tears leaking from her eyes. "I actually… I actually thought that maybe you hadn't figured it out, but you knew all along… man, I'm such a hypocrite."

Yang raised an eyebrow.

"I hid all of this from you for years, and you've barely blinked an eye… but you helped me keep that secret, and I'm a blubbering mess." Ruby eventually said, looking away from Yang.

"Yeah, well." Yang said, as she put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "It's my job to be the stoic older sister, isn't it?"

Ruby actually began bawling. The police officers watching the debacle coughed awkwardly.

"And… I'm sorry for not saying anything. I figured I should let you come out on your own pace, but… I guess I sort of left you hanging there, didn't I?"

Ruby finally managed to choke out a laugh.

"Sometimes we can be _really dumb_."

Yang smiled.

"Not you, Rubes. Just me."

Ruby shook her head. "No, I'm pretty dumb too. But… you don't have to call me 'Rubes'... just call me Ruby."

Yang smiled widely, and Ruby met her eyes and allowed herself to fall into her own hesitant grin.

"It's going to be okay, Ruby."

And it was.


	3. Inheritance

Ruby's story came out slowly, no pun intended. In half-whispered dialogue in the middle of the night between her and Yang, she bared it all.

Or bared most of it, at least. It's not like Yang had any kind of fundamental right to know, but it was only fair to explain, in Ruby's book. And even if it wasn't fair, well, Ruby still wanted to explain anyways. Didn't she?

"You know." Yang said as broken moonlight filtered through the window and dappled across Ruby's soft face. "I think Dad might have already known, too."

Ruby cringed, understandably.

"Really? How did he figure it out?"

Yang shrugged.

"I mean, he obviously wasn't _that_ surprised when you came out to him. And when I asked him about it, he got really embarrassed, so-"

Ruby blanched, turning the color of pasty oatmeal.

"He must have found something _really_ awkward. Maybe your underwear-?"

"Ew! Yaaaang!"

(Later, when the chaos of coming out had died down, Taiyang admitted that he had, in fact, found unmentionables in Ruby's room. They never speak of it again, just out of common courtesy.)

* * *

Several days flitted by in a haze of preparation and bad jokes.

"I still can't believe I'm going to Beacon with you, Ruby!" Yang crowed from her room as the two sisters finished packing their bags.

"I know. You said that five times already, Yang."

"That's not the point!"

Ruby rolled her eyes - only half exasperated - and hoisted her bag over her shoulder while she placed Crescent Rose on the small of her back. She tried to pull her hood up a second later, but Yang intervened, ruffling Ruby's hair.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Rubes." Yang replied, not sounding apologetic at all. "I just couldn't resist."

Ruby growled, pulling away and whipping her hood over her head.

"C'mon, Ruby, you don't need to hide yourself."

Ruby was quiet for a few seconds. Then-

"Haha, I'm not hiding anything!"

Yang raised an eyebrow.

"What? What do you think I'm hiding, Yang?"

"Just your entire head." Yang said dryly. "And your eyes."

"Nah, I'm just cold." Ruby maintained, turning away and heading to the door of their home, where Taiyang would be waiting to take them out to the airship to Beacon.

Taiyang wasn't there.

"Dad? Where are you?"

Yang followed after Ruby, swaggering down the halls as usual.

"He isn't here right now. I'm going to take you, on Bumblebee."

Ruby visibly wilted for a moment, and Yang felt heartsick. Then Ruby's shoulders began shaking.

"Ruby?"

"I just…" Ruby began, her breath hitching. "He says he's fine with me, but then he never talks to me."

"Ruby-"

"He never even looks at me, Yang!"

Yang grabbed Ruby into a hug, ignoring the bulk of Ruby's weapons and bags.

"I'm sure he'll come around, Ruby."

"You don't know that." Ruby protested stubbornly.

"Of course I do!" Yang said firmly. "I know he loves you. He's just… taking some time to adjust."

Ruby snorted, almost venomous in her intensity.

"I'm sure."

The truth was, Yang could understand why Taiyang might be so leery. Reuben Rose had worn his father's face, a wall to take the edge off of Summer Rose's features.

But then hormones had softened Ruby's face to the point where she looked like just Summer had, and then Ruby had taken to wearing Summer's clothes, pilfered from boxes in the attic. Taken to wearing Summer's old cloak, wearing it like a shield against the problems she couldn't solve with her Sniper-Scythe - of which there were far too many.

Ruby was a ghost of Taiyang's past, suddenly come back to haunt him. Hell, Ruby was almost a ghost of _Yang's_ past, too, but Yang knew better than to let the past haunt her at all.

Taiyang's solution to grief was just to bury it as best he could and never look back, and that was something Yang had learned when she was forced to grow up. She kept Ruby from the truth of such things, just as a matter of course, but it was still a truth.

And it was a truth which would hurt.

"I don't know what's wrong with Dad." Yang lied smoothly. "But I believe in him, you know? If you don't believe in him, then believe in the me that believes in him!"

"Oh my _God_ , Yang, you are so cheesy-"

"And we love it!"

"Maybe _you_ love it." Ruby grumbled. Yang shrugged easily.

"Guilty as charged."

Ruby scowled, turning away - her hair falling in front of her face, just like Summer's hair had brushed against her cheeks - and the words fell out of Yang's mouth almost on accident.

"You look like Mom, you know?"

Ruby stopped dead.

"You… you really mean that?"

Yang swallowed, her mouth suddenly too dry.

"Yeah. You do."

Ruby's hands tightened on the hem of her cloak, cradling it closer to her body, and Yang found herself wondering: what was Ruby thinking? In wrapping herself with Summer's cloak, was it like she was actually getting close to Summer again?

Maybe Yang was projecting. After all, didn't she sometimes wish that Summer was back, wish that she had a mother who would fight tooth and nail to come home to them? Instead of a mother that Yang had to fight tooth and nail to find?

"Yang? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Yang lied again, not bothering to dry her eyes. "You're a good kid, you know that? You're the best sister I've ever had."

Just like that, the spell was broken.

"Yang, stop it!" Ruby cried bashfully as Yang strutted out the door and went for Bumblebee.

"No way. I'm never going to stop, Ruby."

"Yaaaang!"

* * *

As the two of them drove out on the roads, Ruby sitting behind Yang on the motorbike and clinging to Yang for dear life, only one thought went through Yang's mind:

 _Ruby even yelps like Mom did._

A small smile stretched across Yang's lips, her flyaway blonde hair dancing in the wind just like the keepsake around Ruby's neck.


End file.
